Darktown

Starred review from July 25, 2016
Mullen (The Revisionists) uses the lens of a twisted murder mystery to unsettle readers with his unflinching look at racism in post-WWII Atlanta. That city has just hired its first black police officers, but the eight men given the responsibility for guarding black neighborhoods are still relegated to second-class status. For example, they’re barred from wearing their police uniforms when traveling to and from court to testify. One of those officers, Lucius Boggs, ends up being responsible for a sensitive murder investigation after Brian Underhill, a drunken white man, drives his car into a lamppost in a black neighborhood. Underhill was released without charge by the white officers who showed up at the scene, but Lily Ellsworth, the black woman who was his passenger, is found dead later on, abandoned in an alley like a piece of trash. Underhill’s status as a former cop and the low value placed on black lives make the probe into Lily’s death a perilous one, for both Boggs and a white officer who’s uneasy with his department’s violent racism. This page-turner reads like the best of James Ellroy. Agent: Susan Golomb, Writers House.

October 31, 2016
Mullen’s gritty, smartly crafted crime procedural takes listeners back to Atlanta, Ga., in 1948, shortly after eight black men were allowed to join the city’s (mainly racist) police force for the first time. The protagonists are Lucius Boggs, one of the new officers, an honest and humane son of a respected minister, and Denny “Rake” Rakestraw, a progressive-thinking young white officer disgusted by the department’s racism and corruption. A car accident involving a drunken, arrogant retired cop attracts the attention of Boggs, who decides to break the rule forbidding black officers to investigate crimes when the car’s passenger, a prostitute named Lily Elsworth, is found murdered after having walked away from the accident earlier. Actor Holland (Selma, TV’s The Knick) has a rich, mellifluous delivery that he uses for the noble Boggs. His Rakestraw gains in strength and power as he progresses from eager rookie to hardened realist. Listeners will stay engrossed throughout all 12 hours of the audiobook. A 37Ink hardcover.